Discussion for article #230754
When I was in the USMC, ICBM missile guys (guys at that time) had a reputation for being “off”.
Part of it was the boring, yet cosmically important nature of the job. The other part was that if you went for any sort of counseling or reported any mental issues, Bam!, you were off the duty.
Zero-tolerance of mental issues. Which, of course, doesn’t eliminate mental issues, but just makes it certain that most sufferers won’t report stuff and get help.
Note: This was over three decades ago, during the late 70’s and 80’s. One can certainly hope that policies have improved since then.
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I couldn’t last a week in that job: the physical isolation on the job; the partial isolation off the job due to secrecy requirements; the endless hours doing little but repetitive checks and drills; the perverse combination of the 100% certainty that you will not be needed to act and the, as KenR4th put it, “cosmically important nature” of what you need to be ready to do anyway; and, most of all, the soul-ripping dilemma of your role in the Mutual Assured Destruction deterrence scheme, where the world benefits from the certainty that you will launch your missiles when ordered, but is greatly harmed if you actually do launch missiles when ordered (see movie WarGames).
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